Andrew Garda Discusses the NFL Draft with Jeff Thurn

Garda (@Andrew_Garda) is an NFL Lead writer, as well as a member of the Football Guys, and Pro Football Writers Association.

Garda discusses the likelihood of NFL teams in the top ten of next month’s NFL Draft moving up to get the player they want?

“Yeah, I could absolutely see that, and in part because it’s a dealer’s choice with the quarterback. I think everybody probably has a quarterback they really like and the other one’s with the doubts probably puts them down a littler farther down the line. I think you look especially at teams like Minnesota, potentially Tampa Bay, although they kind of made it clear they think Josh McCown at least this year is their guy. Um, you look some of the guys in that back half of that top ten, and there’s a good chance they are going to miss out on guy’s they want, and at that point, why not move up? You could also look at it a different way, it’s been rumored, I don’t know how much I actually believe it, people have talked about the Lions, or maybe the Titans moving up for Sammy Watkins. Atlanta moving up possibly to either get Jadeveon Clowney, if he doesn’t get taken with that number one pick, or which of the top two tackles they really want. So, I think we could see a lot of movement there in the top ten, and if we don’t, I think the latter half in that first round is going to be very active. I think if quarterbacks happen to drop, I think people are going to drop right back in to that tail end of the round and make sure they get the guy they want.”

Garda on the coveted position of quarterback in this year’s draft with the likes Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr, Zach Mettenberger, Jimmy Garoppolo, A.J. McCarron, and Tom Savage being some of the top signal callers:

“I think in general it’s back to normal. I feel like we’ve been kind of spoiled, we had Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton. We’ve had some pretty solid classes come out, but we did get that Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, that group of quarterbacks, and I feel like it’s a lot like that where there’s some guys that are question-marky, and it almost feels like right now, Ponder, Gabbert, maybe not as much right now, but Ponder certainly, these are guys that should have ramped up in terms of buzz as we got closer to the draft. They went ahead of people expected them to, and not surprisingly ahead of where they should have been. I think we are feeling some of that mission creep a little bit, the Tom Savage noise, that you hear people saying in the tail end of the first, top of second. Jimmy Garoppolo might jump up. You know, Zach Mettenberger. All of these guys are creeping up and I wonder if it is going to be very reminiscent of that draft where we had Ponder, Gabbert, and Locker move up probably before they should have been taken. It’s sort of, we don’t have any superstars. I’m a big Teddy Bridgewater fan, but to me, he’s not Luck, RGIII, he’s not Newton. He’s not those guys. We lack that starpower, which I feel like has sort of thrown everything in this disarray right now in terms of whose are No. 1 quarterback? Well, I think it’s very viable to make that argument for any number of guys, and everybody’s a project. So, we may see some reaches early on.”

The NFL Draft begins Thursday, May 8 and runs until Saturday, May 10. The Houston Texans own the No. 1 pick.

To hear more of Garda’s interview with Thurn, listen below:

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Catch Thurn on Overtime weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 99.1.

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